Gytha

Hello everyone,

We are in little old England and holding an Independence day supper next week. Can anyone suggest some typical American dishes that I could prepare?

Cheers m'dears,
Gytha & Esme

rjw_lgb_ca

You could break out the grill and do hamburgers and hot dogs; chicken with a spicy barbecue sauce is another staple of a July Fourth cookout. A common side dish for barbecues and park outings is a cold potato salad (chunks of boiled potatoes, celery, relish, olives, sliced hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise and mustard-- optional--, mixed and chilled until yummy).

Your own Domestic Goddess, Nigella Lawson, features a Southern treat in her cookbooks: Ham braised in Coca-Cola. It's not "typical" (July Fourth is a cookout kind of holiday), but it's good. I think she also gives a Cherry Pie recipe in one of her books. Otherwise, ice cream is always a hit on a hot summer day, so serve up some of the good stuff.

kaudrey

Hi Gytha!

What a nice idea. I agree with rjw. I am having a barbeque on the 4th, which is what a lot of Americans do.

I will be grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, and chicken, as rjw says. Potato and pasta salads, baked beans, salad, fruit salad will also be included. And this will be accompanied by large quantities of beer, of course!

And apple pie for dessert!

Have a good time,
Karen

E

I second the suggestion of grilling: chicken (marinated or slathered in BBQ sauce), hotdogs or sausages, burgers, and vegetables. Corn-on-the-cob is very traditonal and can be boiled, or roasted on the grill. Have soft buns on hand for the meat, along with lettuce/tomato/pickles and mayo, mustard and ketchup. Potato and pasta salads are good accompaniments, as is cole slaw. Have beer, iced tea and lemonade to drink. And for dessert, a cobbler or pie would be swell, but indeed, ice cream is traditional, as is watermelon. Some folks like to make red-white-and-blue cupcakes or dessert parfaits. (Will you be able to grill outdoors?) Have fun!

Scarlett

BBQ chicken with potato salad and a corn bread salad at Scarletts house!

Dessert will be mango sorbet and blueberry buckle!

gail

There is a New England thing that if you plant green peas on St. Patrick's Day, then they will be ready for harvest on July 4th. We have never done that, and here north of Boston there was several feet of snow on the ground in March.

At our house we do a July 4th clambake (which interestingly enough has as the centerpeice lobsters, not clams). We serve raw oysters and clams followed by steamer clams, lobsters, corn on the cob.

michelleNYC

I'm with you on the clambake, Gail! Exactly what we do out east on Long Island.

Gytha

Ooh, thanks everyone! Our mouths are watering already. Only problem over this side of the water is that we can't guarantee barbeque weather - possible but not guaranteeable.

case

down here in the South, we'll be having: grilled spareribs (with a dry rub, not a sauce), baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, marinated 'cukes & tomatoes, watermelon, homemade icecream (probably peach - yummy!) and lots of sweet tea & homemade lemonade...

PamSF

I'm hoping for grilled salmon,corn on the cob and a green salad with all the fixin's. I believe I also see a peach and cherry crisp. We'll first be at our local fourth parade which includes lots of kids on bikes, town politicians in antique cars, lots of bagpipers and other assorted revelers!

ChristieP

Fried chicken, corn on the cob, and ice-cold watermelon for dessert!

BTilke

Sadly, fresh corn on the cob is elusive in Europe, including the UK. A lot of corn is grown, but it's feed corn. You can get corn on the cob in supermarkets, but they're usually just a couple of old, forlorn ears wrapped in cling film. Europeans try them and decide the American fondness for corn on the cob is just another example of our lousy food. Few have any idea how delicious really fresh corn on the cob can be. As soon as we buy our own home here, we're going to plant some Silver Queen or other sweet corn in our garden so we can once again have the real thing. (Ribs aren't that great either...usually dry and the sauce is umm...not really barbecue sauce; baby backs are hard to get, even though Denmark is a major supplier of baby back ribs to the US)
BTilke (Brussels)

Gardyloo

Some British friends of the family living in the US used to throw a big party on July 3; "Last Day of Our Rule" was the theme. The menu? Fish suppers, strawberries with clotted cream, bleedin' Watneys Red Barrel (only British beer one could get then), and, sitting on the table but never consumed, a pot of tea made with salt water.

Here in the Northwest with distressingly British-like weather, we go for grilled (or barbecued weather permitting) salmon, corn on the cob, and strawberries mixed with blueberries with whipped cream, for a red, white and blue sweet.

Brooklyn_Bomber

Strange, I thought that whole Independence Day thing would still be kind of a tender spot for the folks on the other side of the pond, what with Yorktown, Cornwallis, and the like.

Don't get me wrong! I love Rod Stewart and Benny Hill as much as the next U.S. citizen. (Admittedly, we still view soccer, or football as you call it, as kind of gay. We'll come around eventually, I guess.) It's just, by comparison, I can't see anyone over here celebrating the Ho Chi Minh's liberation of Saigon anytime soon.

J_Correa

Our July 4 menu will include:
Marinated grilled chicken.
Marinated trip tip with a spice rub, smoked over woodchips and charcoal.
Grilled sausages.
Pinto beans.
Potato salad.
Fruit salad.
Corn on the cob.
Flour tortillas.
Tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole.
Boysenberry pie with vanilla ice cream.
And of course - beer.

gail

Who needs to guarantee barbeque weather - we use our gas grill all winter, and charcoal could be used even if it rains a little - you just have to eat inside.

J_Correa

We use our gas grill in the winter time too.

Gytha

PamSF - Peach and cherry crisp?? Do you have more details please?

Had a little laugh over the "Last Day of our Rule" party, actually it doesn't seem to worry anyone about the whole taking it back bit - guess with history that goes back as far as ours it's just another drop in the ocean, we still tend to think we own the world sometimes. It's our wedding anniversary on the 5th July so I lost my independence, if I ever got it the day after anyhow. (That's Esme not Gytha)
Looks like we will go for the burgers and grill idea, got a couple of 13 year old lads to feed to so that would go down well and will do the salads for the grown-ups.
Actually I feel I should book a plane ticket and hop over to you and do a quick visit to each of you BBQ's!! lol

PamSF

Gytha~the peach and cherry crsip is a variation on the fruit dessert I make throughout the summer. Basically one cuts up peaches,stones cherries and mixes them together with just a bit of sugar and perhaps some nutmeg. The "crisp" is made by mising an assortment of things(flour,sugar,butter,nuts,oats depending on your mood and what's in the larder). Here's a recipe:

Preheat oven to 400(sorry I don't have it in celcius)
Cut peaches(6-8) which should equate to about 6 cups. I pit sometimes a cup or two of cherries and slice them in half. Mix the fruits together and place in a 9 inch square pan.
For the "crisp" melt 1.2 c (1 stick here in the states)sweet,unsalted butter.
Remove from the heat and mix in 1 Cup sugar, 1/4 cup rolled oats, 3.4 Cup flour, 1/2 tsp each ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Crumble on top of fruit. Bake in center of the oven for about 40 minutes until top is brown and fruit is bubbling. Allow to cool a bit before serving. This is wonderful with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or perhaps clotted cream for you all.

This should serve 6 people happily.

PamSF

Whoops..that should read 1/2 cup butterand 3/4 cup flour. All other amounts are the same as written previously.